Thoughts on Value

To provide value, today’s strategy is about balancing the near and longer term in a way that matters to mission and members.

Does price determine value? Rarely. Affordability is rarely the concern because even if people have the money to belong, they may chose not to spend it on your association. The real issue is perceived value. If you are making an offer and it’s not being accepted, it can be the result of more of three conditions:

1. The benefits of what you are offering don’t match high priority needs – which means you have a problem with program strategy.
2. Your communications are not enabling potential users to understand the value it would be in terms that matter to them – which means case you have problem with communications strategy.
3. There are barriers for the potential user accessing what is offered – which means you have a problem with delivery or access strategy.

If you fail to diagnose the real problem your misguided solution can leave you worse off than then you were – if it’s a program problem don’t improve communications. If it’s a communications problem don’t change the program. If it’s a barrier problem, address the barriers before you change program or communications strategy.

How do you determine what will constitute value? An understanding of some recent history here is helpful. In the 90s, professional associations were pretty financially sound and the world was viewed through economic and societal rose tinted glasses. Strategy tended it be vision-based. We described what would constitute nirvana and talked about how we could get there over time. After the turn of the century, economics were as robust and anxiety infiltrated the mood of the association community. Now strategy tended to be driven by identification of immediate needs and the provision of solutions to earn reputation for immediate value.

Today, our society and association community are more mature as result of the current population of adults having lived through both sets of conditions. Today’s strategy tends to be value-driven. It provides practical solutions to today’s opportunities and challenges within the context of an envisioned future that describes what we are working towards over time. This helps us avoid making unwise commitments today that could prove it be barriers to success tomorrow.

So two sets if questions now drive our work to define value:

1. From the need side: Who are our current and prospective members and what are their needs? What should we do for them?
2. From the vision side: What are we trying it accomplish? What work will be required? Who needs to be involved with us?

Today’s strategy is about balancing the near and longer term in a way that matters to mission and members.

That creates two obligations for leadership – both related to the exchange if information. The first is to ensure that leaders have access to a stream of information from our members that allows them to understand their view if the world. Not what we think they should think; but what in fact they do think. Paradoxically this becomes especially important when members are wrong. One if the dirty little secrets of association leadership is that a large number of our members have very little idea about what they really need from their association, but very strong opinions about that they want.

The conundrum is that we need it find out their view of the world unfettered by our own biases or atypical experiences. It helps to recognize that boards are often the worst source of insight into typical member’s experience, followed by senior staff, followed by chapter ire committee leadership. Why?  Well, what do all these groups have in common? Involvement in the work of the association. A level of engagement that provides them access to a stream of information that is broader, deeper and more frequently replenished than the stream of information the vast majority of our current and future members have access to.

Leaders’ view of the world is going to be different, not necessarily smarter or dumber, better or worse but different. We have to learn to gather information from members, prospective members and other stakeholders that allows us to better understand what they are experiencing as opposed to soliciting from them uninformed, under-informed or misinformed opinions about what we need to do.

I don’t want them to complete a report card grading what we are already doing. They may not know how well it works. I don’t want to ask them for their opinion about what we should do. They may not know enough to give us good counsel. I don’t want to ask them how they want us to educate, inform or communicate. They will usually lie and tell you what they think they should say.

We need to ask questions like: What are the two or three most important challenges or opportunities you expect to face in the next year or two? They can tell us that. A question like: Is there a problem you are currently having about which you are not getting useful help? We want it ask: If there was a program or service you would take advantage of no matter what – assuming reasonable cost – what would it be? Don’t ask what kind of seminars or webinars they would prefer, ask: Can you give me an example of a learning opportunity you recently participated in that you thought was dynamite? What made it good? Can you give me an example of an education program you recently attended that you thought was terrible? What made it so bad? We shouldn’t ask: How we should keep you informed? We should ask: Can you tell me something you recently found out about that was very useful or important to you? Where did you find it? Why do you go there as a source?

By understanding what our members see going on in their world, how they behave in it, and what influences that behavior, leaders are able to use their greater familiarity with the capacity and strategic positon of the organization – blended with the description of the desired future – to determine which parts of the world, relevant to mission and members, the enterprise is well positioned to do something meaningful about with an appropriate degree of success.

Then we communicate back to members and other stakeholders not just what we decided but why. And our decision is always explained in terms of the value or benefit we are seeking to provide to members or mission – not just what we decided to do. How that choice will make their relevant world different in a better way is what members want to know. And, making the decision on that bias is what enables leaders to uncover how value to members and mission can best be achieved.

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